It is seems there is such a stigma attached to anything “Covid”.

If you wear a mask, you are losing your rights or you are doing your part. If you socially distance, you are being a victim of the hype or you are trying to help the spread. If you get tested…well…

“It’s all a conspiracy.”

“My friends got tired of waiting in line and left. Their results came back positive.”

“The numbers are going up because of the numbers of people who are testing.”

You name it and you will get an opinion.

Well, here is mine. I decided to get tested a few weeks ago. Not as much for myself, but for the health of an older family member who lives with me. I called and scheduled an appointment a week and a half out..

Appointment day rolled around and I drove into the next town with my husband where a policeman waited to give me entry based upon the number I was given during my appointment call. I had brought my husband along for the ride and we both looked around at what the scene was in a strange amazement.

It looked like a weird scene out of a bizarre science fiction movie. People outfitted in hazmat gear. A line of cars streaming around a little country church like we were in a funeral procession. It was odd.

They checked my info and we waited for the testing tent where you drove up with an orange cone placed in the front and behind your vehicle. (I still do not know exactly what that was for–again, very odd.)

The persons capturing your specimen then appeared at the driver’s side window. I double checked my info and then was given instructions on how the test would be performed. The lady suggested I grab my steering wheel with my left hand and then use the right to squeeze mu husband’s hand.

Ten seconds, she said.

Longest damn ten seconds I have ever experienced.

I squeezed the steering wheel, cut off my husband’s circulation and my feet came off the floorboard as she scraped up my nose somewhere near my brain.

No fun.

None.

She handed me a tissue and gave me the instructions on how to pull my results online.

And I waited…

I pulled the site up, solely out of curiosity 5 days later.

To my surprise, the results were in:

1. Human RNA was not detected on initial and repeat analysis. This is likely due to insufficient acquisition of RNA during collection. Reliable results could
   not be obtained. Recommend recollection.

WHAT? Inconclusive.

Less than an hour later I received a call from someone with the state of Georgia explaining that about 20 percent of what was taken in my county during that day came back as inconclusive. She explained that “not sure if was operator or lab error, but we got a bunch of them back like this. You will have to test again.”

Two days later the county called to explain that my results were inconclusive.

Really? I told them what the state said.

Crickets.

So, they scraped the lower quadrant of my brain and they knew nothing.

I knew I was over it and there was no way I was having this done a second time. I would not go back through that, no, uh uh, nada, not happening…

A month has gone by now and as I type to close this out I wonder how many more people had the same experience? I wonder if they felt the same way I had and walked away with the “I’ll take my chances” attitude? I wonder, quite honestly, what is the real truth?

Truth.

Now, there is a subject I would like to hear more about…

Wouldn’t you?